Electrical power distribution systems often include overhead electrical power distribution lines mounted up on poles by a wide variety of mounting structure. Other distribution systems include underground distribution lines, in which protected cables run under the ground surface.
Generators in electric utilities generate current at medium voltage to transmission transformers, which raise the voltage to very high levels. All over the length of the transmission lines, power substations with respective distribution transformers transform the voltage back into medium voltages supplied to the industrial areas and residential quarters in the cities.
The electric distribution grid in most countries is characterized by aging infrastructure and outdated technology at a time when digital society demands an increased quantity and more reliable electrical power. Very little automation or monitoring typically exists between the customer meter and an electrical substation, making it difficult to quickly identify the cause and location of an electrical distribution problem, for example: a fault, without manual dispatch of field crews. Additionally, planning and maintenance engineers in the electric utilities typically have limited information about the behaviour of a circuit to drive the best decisions for circuit upgrade/rehabilitation tasks, and determining upgrade or replacement of equipment.
A smart grid is a modern electric power grid infrastructure for improved efficiency, reliability and safety. The smart grid utilizes smooth integration of renewable and alternative energy sources through automated control and modern communication technologies. In the smart grid, reliable information of the power grid becomes an important factor for reliable delivery of power from generation units to end users. The impact of equipment failures, limitations of capacity, and natural accidents and catastrophes, which cause power disturbances and outages, can be largely avoided by rapidly monitoring, diagnostics and protection of conditions of power systems. There is a need for continuous, uninterrupted, real time monitoring of parameters of electric power grid as part of a smart grid system.
As the operation and maintenance of distribution networks becomes more complex, an accurate, real-time data obtained from electric power grid becomes more critical than ever. New automation systems like Distribution Management Systems (DMS) and Outage Management Systems (OMS) rely on accurate representation of loads and individual connections for a range of applications, including fault location and automated switching to speed service restoration. Without accurate monitoring of the grid, crews are unable to quickly restore power to individual customers, businesses and neighborhoods.
A common problem in solutions with centralized control location is that they cannot rapidly react to a fault in a timely fashion. Another problem is that many sensors may attempt to report their information at the same time during an outage, which might create traffic congestion in the network. Clearly, there is a need for methods and systems for monitoring an electrical power grid that mitigate or obviate the above problems.